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Fundraiser held for Farmingdale marching band By JANET PRETE
Janet Prete/Herald photos
Event organizer John Theissen with a guitar autographed by Taylor Swift for the live auction at the fundraiser.
Members of Nassau County’s police unions and community members gathered at Mulcahy’s in Wantagh on Oct. 4 for a fundraiser to benefit the Farmingdale High School marching band, about two weeks after the band was involved in a deadly bus accident. The fundraiser was a joint effort between the police unions and John Theissen of the John Theissen Children’s Foundation in Wantagh. One of the buses carrying band members and staff to a band camp in Greeley, Pennsylvania, crashed and rolled over in Orange County on Sept. 21. Gina Pellettiere, the band director, and Beatrice Ferrari, a chaperone, were both killed. Dozens of students were hospitalized, although many have since been released and are still recuperating from their injuries. “Thank God it’s not every day that we have an accident like this,” Bill Bourguignon, president of CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
School board files lawsuit to keep Warriors name By CHARLES SHAW cshaw@liherald.com
The Wantagh School District is taking its fight to the courtroom to keep its traditional Warriors nickname. The Wantagh Board of Education filed a lawsuit against the New York State Board of Regents on Sept. 29, challenging the constitutionality of a state resolution that prohibits the use of indigenous team names, mascots and logos by public schools. The Wyandanch School District has joined Wantagh in filing suit. “This evening, the board has agreed to file litigation against
(the Board of Regents) to continue using the ‘Warrior’ nickname with rebranded imagery,” the Wantagh board said in a statement. The Board of Regents voted unanimously on April 18 to adopt the resolution, which went into effect the following month. School districts have until the end of the 2024-25 school year to rebrand their imagery to eliminate any indigenous references, according to the state board. Failure to comply after the deadline could result in the loss of state aid, but schools can apply for an extension if they demonstrate that they are making an effort
to remove any indigenous references. According to the suit, the Wantagh district still plans to change mascots and logos to remove any Native Americanassociated imagery, but the district wants to retain the Warriors nickname, which the suit states is a universal cultural symbol, and not just a Native American one. Reached for comment on the lawsuit, the state education department said it could not provide a statement due to pending litigation. Since the resolution went into effect, schools across the state have been in the process
of changing any Native American imagery, many of which include a Warriors nickname. According to the Wantagh school board, in April the state education department granted the Chenango Valley Central School District in Binghamton a pass to use the Warrior nickname. According to a letter from Chenango Valley district
officials, their Warrior name has European roots, and the state education department determined the name was not connected with indigenous nations or people. “Through its own decisionmaking, (the state education department) has granted at least one district in New York CONTINUED ON PAGE 11